Current Country :: What's Awesome And What Blows

It's no secret that I'm a country radio deejay, so I'm very much in tune with what's current in that market. Here are a few hits and several misses from the last couple of months:

AWESOME:

• "You Belong With Me" by Taylor Swift



This is a really great little tune! Swift has grown on me a lot as an artist in the last year. "Tim McGraw" and "Teardrops On My Guitar" were high school heartbreaker ballads, so I didn't pay too much attention. "Our Song" made me raise an eyebrow as an above-average attempt at high school cuteness, but was still too lyrically naive for me to take seriously."

"Should've Said No" impressed me. Quite truthfully, I haven't heard such poignant (and relevant) youthful angst since Alanis. "You Belong With Me" intrigues me in the same way, tapping into parts of the adolescent brain that aren't usually so well articulated. ("You're on the phone with your girlfriend, she's upset / She's going off about something that you said / Cause she doesn't get your humor like I do")

I honestly haven't a clue whether Taylor will have staying power in the music biz, but right now, I'm enjoying her contributions.

Listen




• "Big Green Tractor" by Jason Aldean



His best song since "Amarillo Sky." It's a redneck slow jam, but for Aldean, it just works. The lyric toward the beginning where he actually recounts telling his dogs, "y'all get down," is hilarious.
I'm not sure exactly what's so thrilling or romantic about riding around on a big green tractor, but Aldean manages to make it seem that way. I think that's pretty cool.

Listen




• "Sissy's Song" by Alan Jackson



Ordinarily, the mention of religion in songs immediately makes me lose interest, so I really didn't give this song a fair chance on the first listen. After a second spin, though, I realized that moments of raw, unguarded emotion in music are, when genuine, very rare. This is one of those moments.

Jackson wrote the song about a housekeeper that passed away, and his love for and attachment to her sit softly in your ears during this song. I really like that the song is a bit shorter than most radio singles; it serves as a reminder that pain from death is often very quick and very direct, as are the song's lyrics.

Songs like this do not come along often, but they always become massively successful when they do, because they reach very personal areas of the heart.

Listen

SUCKS:

• "Love Remembers" by Craig Morgan



Country radio is still playing the crap out of this song, and I honestly can't figure out why. Much like Carrie Underwood and Rascal Flatts, Morgan oversings almost every one of his songs. Toward the end, he crescendos so dramatically singing the song's title that he sounds like an old wolf in the throes of an orgasm. It's disgusting.

I will note what I see as this song's one redeeming quality: It reminds you not to take any moment with your lover for granted.

Listen




• "One In Every Crowd" by Montgomery Gentry



My finger cannot move fast enough to turn this song off every time it comes on. It's a salute to being that loud, drunk guy at a party who thinks everyone loves him, when in reality, they want to light him on fire with their minds. I wouldn't hate the song so much if I thought that MG got the joke, but I know they didn't. They have no clue that everyone hates this guy. The result is just plain annoying.

Listen